Temporal structure in the speech of a person with dementia: a longitudinal case study
Journal Title: Acta Neuropsychologica - Year 2011, Vol 9, Issue 4
Abstract
Cognitive and language processes in dementia have been studied extensively, but motor speech degeneration in the course of dementing illness has been relatively unexplored. The potential for early dissociation of motor functions of language at the level of speech production has not been explored extensively in the research literature. In an earlier pilot study of temporal structure in the speech of persons with dementia, in which our participants produced a series of short phrases that included a target word beginning with a fricative or voiced or voiceless stop consonant and ending with either /t/ or /d/, this subject demonstrated inconsistent final lengthening and effects of final consonant voicing on vowel duration, as well as a voice onset time (VOT) pattern that suggested a reduced distinction between American English /b/ and /p/. Analysis of recordings of this subject made six months later revealed a number of additional changes in sentence- and phrase-timing patterns, changes that were not observed in the earlier recording. An interaction between motor speech and language production and perception changes such as that found in this case study informs our understanding of the deterioration in dementia
Authors and Affiliations
Linda Carozza, Margaret Quinn, Julia Nack, Fredericka Bell-Berti
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